According to ESPN, Sonny has said he was baffled by the decision to rule out his penalty in our 6-1 win over Rochdale but admitted he will have to change his technique.
The Korean was at the centre of the controversy as Wednesday’s FA Cup fifth-round replay at Wembley Stadium descended on into farce amid a number of controversial decisions by the Video Assistant Referee (VAR).
He created Erik Lamela’s seventh-minute goal which was controversially disallowed by the VAR, before opening the scoring himself. He then scored from the penalty spot only for referee Paul Tierney to rule it out using VAR and add insult to injury by booking Son for supposed ungentlemanly behaviour for a feint in his run-up.
Under the letter of the law, players are allowed to hesitate during the run-up, as Son did, but not immediately before kicking the ball, and the forward scored his last penalty with a similar feint in South Korea’s defeat to Morocco last year.
“Honestly, this VAR thing, the communication between the referee and the players is wrong,”: a frustrated Son said afterwards. “We don’t understand what’s going on and why. It’s a problem.This is the first season of VAR and I think it’s getting better. The referee took two goals away from us but I think the decisions were correct from referee…if they see the video it must be the right decision!
He added:”The first goal, when Lamela scored, I didn’t know what was going on and I asked him what happened. He just said [Fernando] Llorente pulled the shirt and I thought, ‘Ok.’ After my penalty, it’s difficult to explain because in the international break I scored goals with the same run-up.
Son went on to say: “And this time it was a foul. In the past it wasn’t a foul. This is a strange thing for me. I scored like this, I tried it again and they said [no]. I didn’t stop. This is my move — I make my tempo slower but I’m still on the move, you know. This, for me, is a bit strange. But the referee says I need to change my style and practice.”
Despite the first half debacle Spurs refocused to score through Llorente within two minutes of the restart.”At half-time the gaffer said we need to focus, play our game, we’re doing well,”:Son explained. “First half we had a couple of chances, we scored and normally it’s 2-0!
He added: “But after it was 1-1 and then we had a bit of trouble. We deserved [it] in the second half. We played our game and we killed the game. I respect the opponent, they’re still a League One team but they fought in the first game and now. I give them a lot of respect.”
The article adds how Llorente went on to score a 12-minute hat trick, more than doubling his tally of Spurs goals and giving manager Mauricio Pochettino food for thought on the competition for places in the front four, where Son is battling for one spot against Huddersfield on Saturday with Erika Lamela and January signing Lucas Moura, who impressed again.”I’m very happy for Fernando. He’s a very nice guy,” Son said. “I think it’s his first hat trick for Tottenham and everyone is happy. It’s not easy to score a hat trick and for him it’s good to get his confidence back and he can score a lot more goals for us hopefully.
He added: “Competition makes us all better and better. I just try to work hard, like today. When I play, I just try to score goals or assist someone — that’s my job. I just try to show my good performance and we’ll see what happens in the future.”
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